Alec Finlay is an internationally recognised artist, poet and publisher whose work crosses a range of media and forms, from sculpture and collage, to audio-visual, neon and new technologies. Born in Scotland in 1966, much of Finlay’s work reflects on our interaction with nature and considers how we as a culture, or cultures, relate to landscape.
Artist’s website:
alecfinlay.com
–
after Kafka
the countries of the world are too great
too clear-cut, too conclusive, to contain
all the counties that we have within us
*
how beautiful they are, the islands
that we’ve never been to
*
languages dissolve nations
into song and poem
*
after Benjamin
nations are all romance
but without the poor
of the world
there’d be no myth
*
each night, before we go to sleep
the radio turns off our borders
and broadcasts to all the sailors
far, far, out at sea
*
our laws are imitations
*
the world knows itself as an arc
*
a domain we all share: SKY
a utopian language: ALLONEWORD
a utopian technology: ALLONEWORLD
a notion of the self, given extension and exclusion: NATION
the ‘also ran’ of politics : REGION
the countries on the edge of England: BRITAIN
the Aegean, inverted: HEBRIDES
a glimpse of happiness: HY-BRAZIL
a diminishment to the ray of the nation: EMIGRATION
a little more colour: IMMIGRATION
*
after Sir Thomas Browne
we carry countries within us
that we can only seek without us
*
where should we go
NORTH
when we feel the need
SOUTH
to change our clothes
where should we look
EAST
to find a change in the light
WEST
from day to night
–
